Our View: Value of good fathers can't be underestimated

Being a good father doesn’t have to be complicated. You start by being there for your wife and kids.

Being there for dinner every night. Being there to help with homework. Being there to tuck them into bed at night. Being there to help them learn how to ride a bike. Or just being there to watch a ballgame.

“Daddy’s home” still is a big deal.

Those of you who are there for your children deserve to celebrate today — preferably with your children. You have not only done well for your family, but you have made the community you live in better.

We also salute the single fathers out there, those who stay involved with their children after they split with a spouse.

“There are some people so far removed from their kids that it’s kind of sad,” David Ulrich, 46, of Rockford said. Ulrich is one of the single fathers featured in today’s Life & Style section. “I’ve known a lot of divorced people who blew off time with their kids to go on a date or go golfing. I can’t fathom that. If you don’t show interest in their life, they’re probably not going to show interest in yours. You don’t want to take any single moment for granted. That’s the moment they may accomplish something great and you weren’t there for it.”

Being a single parent is a tough job whether you’re a man or a woman. Having a parenting partner puts the odds in favor of your children.

They’re more likely to succeed. They’re more likely to do well in school, graduate and get decent jobs. If there were more fathers like you, the world would be a better place.

Alas, that’s not always the case. Too many men consider their job done shortly after conception and refuse to be a part of their children’s lives.

Winnebago County, known for its high crime and poverty rates, also has a high births-out-of-wedlock rate. According to the 2010 Healthy Community Study, 50.3 percent of the births in the county were to unwed mothers. In Boone County it was 39.8 percent and statewide it was 40.7 percent.

Nationally, the numbers are not much better. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 46 percent of first births to mothers ages 15 to 44 occur out of wedlock compared with 38 percent in 2002. The CDC also says that men and women with lower incomes were “significantly more likely” to have a premarital first birth.

Consider these sad statistics:

Page 2 of 2 - - 90 percent of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes.

- 71 percent of high school dropouts are from fatherless homes.

- Young children growing up without father’s involvement are 10 times more likely to be extremely poor.

- The majority of teen mothers come from homes without fathers.

- 85 percent of all youths sit­ting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.

These numbers should be no surprise. We’ve published them before and will publish them again. Society can’t force men to be good fathers, but perhaps if we drive the point home often enough some will realize how important they are in their children’s lives.

Unfortunately they don’t realize how valuable they are because they’re likely to come from fatherless homes themselves. It’s a vicious cycle that yields lives of crime, poverty and despair.

That cycle can end if one man at a time decides to be a father instead of a sperm donor.

Fathers haven’t always been given their due. Father’s Day has been an official holiday since 1972. Mother’s Day has been celebrated since 1914.

Today’s world is complicated, but a good father can make it less so for his family. Happy Fathers Day to those who do so.